This invention relates to an adapter device to or from which an integrated circuit unit, such as memory chip, can be mounted or dismounted, and which is loaded on a host equipment as the integrated circuit unit is loaded thereon, a memory device comprised of the adapter device on which the memory chip is loaded, and to an integrated circuit chip that can be mounted or dismounted to or from the adapter device.
As an external memory device for an information processing apparatus, such as a personal computer or a digital still camera, there is a substantially plate-shaped memory device employing a semiconductor memory as a recording medium. The memory device of a larger storage capacity is able to store information signals up to a higher value of approximately 64 Mbytes.
If this memory device is used as an external storage device, such as for a digital still camera, picture data having a larger data size can be manipulated. Since these numerous picture data cannot be stored in a sole memory device, the user has to purchase a new memory device.
There are occasions where music data or data processed by a computer are stored on this memory device in addition to the picture data. If many sorts of data are stored in a sole memory device, the user may forget the data stored on the memory device, with the result that data management becomes complex in order to prevent this from occurring.
Moreover, in saving digital contents protected by copyright, such as music data, in the memory device, a copyright management function needs to be provided in order to prohibit unauthorized copying of digital contents. Thus, in the memory device, it may become necessary to add a function capable of coping with different sorts of information signals to be saved.